The Senate rejected a call Tuesday to secure the nation’s borders before tackling other immigration-related concerns such as citizenship for millions of men and women in the country illegally — a victory for President Bush and supporters of a comprehensive approach to a volatile election-year issue. The vote was 55-40 against a proposal by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who said that anything less than a border security-first approach amounted to “a wink and a nod one more time to those who would come here” unlawfully. Republican and Democratic supporters of the sweeping Senate bill said Isakson’s approach would be self-defeating and derail the approach that Bush backed in Monday night’s prime time speech from the Oval Office. “We have to have a comprehensive approach if we’re going to gain control of the borders,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

A shooting and a car bombing killed 23 people at a Baghdad garage Tuesday as violence wracked the Iraqi capital, police said.Gunmen stormed the garage in northeast Baghdad and killed five people.A car bomb later detonated outside the garage, killing 18 civilians and injuring 33 others, police said.Attackers also killed 14 people in other violence Tuesday in Baghdad.A dean at Mustansriya University and two bodyguards were shot dead in Adhamiya, a northern Sunni neighborhood. Abass Ali Dhahir al-Amerri, dean of the school's college of management and economics, and three bodyguards were driving when attackers fired on them. The surviving guard is in critical condition. ...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/16/iraq.main/index.html?section=cnn_world

Relatives of defendants in Saddam Hussein's trial took the stand Tuesday, insisting the two low-level Baath Party officials had nothing to do with a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s. The burden of proof has effectively been thrown onto the defense to clear its clients after the chief judge accused Saddam and his seven co-defendants of crimes against humanity, including killings, torture and unlawful imprisonment of men, women and children. The charges were based on the prosecution evidence so far in the 7-month-old trial. The seriousness of the charges raises a strong possibility of death sentences by hanging for at least some of the defendants if convicted, particularly Saddam and his former intelligence chief, Barzan Ibrahim. Reading the charge sheets against each defendant Monday, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman accused Saddam and Ibrahim of ordering a "systematic and wide-scale attack" by security forces on the Shiite town of Dujail after a ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1968075

The stunning revelation of fraud and fakery in the heart of China's R&D industry has vindicated a feisty set of scholars who are gaining traction in exposing a culture of fraud and corruption in China's colleges. Just days ago, authorities revealed that the Hanxin digital signal chip, a so-called "Chinese chip" designed to enhance home-grown computer technology, is not an original. Chen Jin, "father of the Chinese chip," evidently used a product from a foreign firm to win a lucrative bid in 2003 — ironically, to spearhead a much publicized patriotic national drive to create a Chinese super microchip. For scientists and researchers in China, the Chen case, while embarrassing, is all too typical. Other fraud cases are coming to light that reveal a deeply ingrained habit of plagiarism, falsification, and corruption — widely recognized, but not widely policed or punished in Chinese universities. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/16/tech/main1621562.shtml?source=RSS&attr=World_1621562

The Pentagon on Tuesday released video images of American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the military headquarters building and killing 184 people in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.The images, recorded by a Pentagon security camera, were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Judicial Watch, a public interest group. The video had previously been leaked and publicly circulated, but this is the first time the government will have officially released the imagery.The hijacked American Airlines plane slammed into the southwest side of the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m. ET, shortly after two other hijacked airlines were flown into the twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York. The attack set off fires in a portion of the Pentagon and killed 125 people inside, in addition to those on board the plane....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12818225/from/RSS/

The United States armed forces have been using robots in Afghanistan and Iraq for some time now. Now the German military, the Bundeswehr, is testing similar robots on a training ground near the southern city of Würzburg.Asendro sluggishly drags itself up the stairs until it stands in front of a closed door. Does the door conceal a bomb or a group of armed terrorists? It doesn't matter to Asendro, a fearless robot. It extends its arm, presses the door handle and opens the door into the unknown. "Asendro" is part of the latest generation of guard and protection robots. Weighing in at only 40 kilograms (88 pounds), the diminutive robot looks something like a toy tank. With its arm, the device can open doors and, using its video eyes, investigate locations too inaccessible or dangerous for human scouts....http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,416339,00.html